Most of the known wheel suspensions of motorcycles include a guide means in the form of a swinging arm or fork carrying the wheel, and a resilient element in the form of a coil spring the interior of which accommodates a means for suppressing oscillations or a hydraulic shock absorber pivotably connected to the frame of the motorcycle and to the swinging arm at the length thereof between its swing axis and the wheel axis.
Such suspensions are described, for example, in the publication "Mototsikl Dnepr-16", 1985, the Avtoexport Publishers, Moscow.
Construction of such suspension in the form of coil springs, despite small overall size thereof, requires much metal to be consumed for manufacture. For example, the quantity of metal consumed for the resilient arrangement of the rear wheel suspension of such heavy class motorcycle as the "Dnepr" amounts to 0.0023 kg per unit (newton) static load. By way of comparison, it should be noted that in the dump truck KamAZ-5510 (cf., I. M. Jurkovsly and V. A. Tolpygin "Avtomobil KamAZ", 1975, the DOSAAF Publishers, Moscow) the similar factor is 0.00178 kg/N, an improvement by 29%.
There is known a more advanced wheel suspension of the "Dnepr" motorcycle (cf., "Mototsikl Dnepr-16", 1985, the Avtoexport Publishers, Moscow) comprising a swinging arm carrying the wheel, and a resilient element with a shock absorber connected to the swinging arm. The resilient element is fashioned as a cylindrical coil spring, whereas the shock absorber has the form of a hydraulic-action suppressor of oscillations accommodated concentrically inside the resilient element.
However, apart from the aforedescribed metal over-consumption, this known suspension includes excessive number of working parts. In addition, the suspension fails to ensure a sufficiently smooth ride, and in certain operating conditions fails to get rid of substantial inertia loads imparted to the riders and to the motorcycle structure during recoil.